Mysterious invite from the city and Google says event to have "positive impact."

Update 6:35pm CT: Local ABC TV affiliate KVUE reports that "multiple sources confirmed to KVUE News that [Tuesday's conference] will be to announce the City is getting Google Fiber high speed Internet."

Original story:

No one’s sure where Google Fiber will arrive next, but the Internet is abuzz about a press conference on Tuesday, April 9 during which Google may announce that the service is headed to Austin, Texas.

According to VentureBeat, an invitation sent Friday described “a very important announcement that will have a positive impact on Austinites and the future of the city.” VentureBeat adds that “multiple sources” confirmed that this “could involve” the launch of Google Fiber in the Texas capital.

Ars has reached out to Google for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.

Austin would be a logical choice, as it’s already the home of the South by Southwest Festival and numerous tech companies, including Dell and AMD.

Back in 2010, the local government encouraged citizens to help lobby Google to bring a gigabit network to the area. Ultimately, Kansas City, Kansas was chosen as the first location—followed quickly by Kansas City, Missouri and surrounding areas.

What Google is doing with its Fiber projects is incredible. They provide web services. And one of the ways to increase web service demand is to provide good connections which allow customers to make the most use. Broadband has allowed services such as Netflix to blossom into the massive libraries they are today.

Just imagine what common gigabit connections could do. The rural areas will be slower on getting those connections, but even still their average connections will still get upgraded.

And Google is helping drive all of this. With Affordable prices no less. Go Google.

I AM SO EXCITED! Just about to move back to my hometown and I read this . Good news all around here folks. To say that the city has just a few tech companies is a bit of an understatement though: Facebook, Intel, AMD, Dell, and Google itself all have major offices in the city. Those are just the big ones, a large chunk of Austin's GDP is tied up in the tech industry.

Honestly, it would be a better location to roll out a gigabit fiber network due to the vastly more tech literate population than most cities on top of the major tech companies with offices within the city. Certainly more so that Kansas City.

Hell, I am moving from Atlanta in the next 2 months, and I am going to have a choice between Miami or Austin. My brother lives in Austin and has been trying to get me to come there. The rest of Texas I could do without though, but I am really liking the idea of seeing the beaches again.....

Google: please go to Miami, then I will have a clear cut choice

ps, fuck Atlanta as being the most "wired" city in the south.....Comcast or DSL....yeah that's "wired" alright.....snore.

Just imagine what common gigabit connections could do. The rural areas will be slower on getting those connections, but even still their average connections will still get upgraded.

And Google is helping drive all of this. With Affordable prices no less. Go Google.

I tried imagening that, but I can't think of anything.

I realise this is an unpopular opinion to have, but since I used a 100mbit line for 6 years, I've come to the conclusion that there's exactly nothing I could use it for that my current 14mbit line doesn't do just as good (I have 14mbit out of choice, not because that's all I could get).

People might claim that the reason that there isn't anything to actually use a 1git line for, is the chicken and egg dilemma. I disagree, there has to be in the hundreds of thousands of people who has 100mbit plus, shouldn't services for these lines have appeared by now?

Time Warner is so craptastically bad in Austin that I'm actually interested in what their response will be if this announcement is true. I'd really like to see how the competition responds with Google as a competitive provider. Anyone from KC with insight?

I'd hate to have to have to move back across city lines, even if it's only about two miles away. (Austin's housing is not bad, but there are availability problems for certain types of housing in certain areas due to feast/famine cycles in housing.)

Time Warner is so craptastically bad in Austin that I'm actually interested in what their response will be if this announcement is true. I'd really like to see how the competition responds with Google as a competitive provider. Anyone from KC with insight?

Having seen Comcast in the other Texas markets, TWC is godlike by comparison... (The biggest problem is that their service is good or bad based on the block you're in-- never mind customer "service".)

I'm hopeful that they start taking their DOCSIS 3.0 rollout more seriously and price it competitively. If the *bad* outcome is that I can get 30+ Mbit service cheaper than Google Fiber, I guess I'd manage somehow.

Just imagine what common gigabit connections could do. The rural areas will be slower on getting those connections, but even still their average connections will still get upgraded.

And Google is helping drive all of this. With Affordable prices no less. Go Google.

I tried imagening that, but I can't think of anything.

I realise this is an unpopular opinion to have, but since I used a 100mbit line for 6 years, I've come to the conclusion that there's exactly nothing I could use it for that my current 14mbit line doesn't do just as good (I have 14mbit out of choice, not because that's all I could get).

People might claim that the reason that there isn't anything to actually use a 1git line for, is the chicken and egg dilemma. I disagree, there has to be in the hundreds of thousands of people who has 100mbit plus, shouldn't services for these lines have appeared by now?

You're not out of line is making that statement, but there's more to it than just the speed. Just having an ISP who is not also a content provider is a huge bonus -- no worry about paying more for my internet bits than my cable company bits. Also real competition means not getting gouged if I want upper tier performance.

IHonestly, it would be a better location to roll out a gigabit fiber network due to the vastly more tech literate population than most cities on top of the major tech companies with offices within the city. Certainly more so that Kansas City.

Is fair to say Austin is more tech town than KC but KC is more of a telcom town with Sprint and all the telcom suppliers. KC also has Garmin, Cerner, Perceptive and nearly 3000 tech companies. KC has almost the same tech employment as Austin.

People might claim that the reason that there isn't anything to actually use a 1git line for, is the chicken and egg dilemma. I disagree, there has to be in the hundreds of thousands of people who has 100mbit plus, shouldn't services for these lines have appeared by now?

the main draw of superfast internet (at least for me) is that you can live in a shared rental house and not have to deal with it maxing out when multiple people are watching HD streams or downloading huge files on steam/consoles/torrents.

The thing everyone keeps forgetting about is that Google doesn't have data cap. Period. Comcast suspended their 250 gig cap...but we ALL know they are going to go with the 50 gigs = $10 overage charges because they can get away with it because of monopolies. And fuck Comcast for that.

It's not necessarily the speed, it's the fact that it's a combo of speed and no data cap. That's it right there.

Offiicially Austin has several providers. These include Roadrunner, AT&T, and Grande Communications. I don't know what Grande's problem is but they've not come to most of Austin, though my current housemate once dealt with them and says their service is excellent. AT&T has but it isn't much of an option. So effectively, yes, we have a monopoly provider here, and they take full advantage.

Problem is, the Google Fiber pricing scheme is rather annoying (no doubt intentionally) – you either have to pay a lot or settle for crappy service. The two options are $70/mo for gigabit or $0/mo for 5/1 Mbps. Currently I get 20/4 Mbps for $30-40/mo (depending on the promotion we're on) from Comcast, which I'm pretty satisfied with.

If they offered 50 or 100 Mbps service at similar prices, I'd switch to that for sure. But 5 Mbps is too slow, even for free, and I don't value gigabit service nearly enough to pay double my current price. So there's no attractive plan.

Damn. I knew I should have stayed in Austin!!!If Google announces for Austin, it's a perfect choice for them. The city is progressive, high-tech, open to experimentation and a freaking good place to party. It's got me thinking about moving back. I do miss the place. Better hurry before the rent and prices go through the roof.

The close proximity to site 0 implies to me that they are going to be making a major-city web, and then expand to slightly smaller cities after they get about 20 major cities across the US.

Ditto on hoping they destroy Comcast. I only wish they'd hurry up and just flat-out bust them now, since they're in over their heads on this NBC deal. Now would be a perfect opportunity to shout "supplies!" and set up shop in 4 major cities where Comcast dominates.

Problem is, the Google Fiber pricing scheme is rather annoying (no doubt intentionally) – you either have to pay a lot or settle for crappy service. The two options are $70/mo for gigabit or $0/mo for 5/1 Mbps. Currently I get 20/4 Mbps for $30-40/mo (depending on the promotion we're on) from Comcast, which I'm pretty satisfied with.

If they offered 50 or 100 Mbps service at similar prices, I'd switch to that for sure. But 5 Mbps is too slow, even for free, and I don't value gigabit service nearly enough to pay double my current price. So there's no attractive plan.

The bandwidth offered isn't what costs money, bandwidth is relatively "free". What costs money is the infrastructure, which is the same no matter the bandwidth offered.

The only reason cable/dsl/etc offer different tiers of speed is because they have slower network where bandwidth is a scare resource or they are just creating artificial price points to squeeze as much money out of people as possible.

Just imagine what common gigabit connections could do. The rural areas will be slower on getting those connections, but even still their average connections will still get upgraded.

And Google is helping drive all of this. With Affordable prices no less. Go Google.

I tried imagening that, but I can't think of anything.

I realise this is an unpopular opinion to have, but since I used a 100mbit line for 6 years, I've come to the conclusion that there's exactly nothing I could use it for that my current 14mbit line doesn't do just as good (I have 14mbit out of choice, not because that's all I could get).

People might claim that the reason that there isn't anything to actually use a 1git line for, is the chicken and egg dilemma. I disagree, there has to be in the hundreds of thousands of people who has 100mbit plus, shouldn't services for these lines have appeared by now?

I've been saying the same thing since 300baud modems.

Hundreds of thousands with 100Mb? Umm, where? Access to 100Mb does not mean they're willing to pay $200/mo for it.

Anyway, making use of of a 100Mb pipe would burn through your data cap in 7hr-14hr, depending on your ISP.

Most people that I know who have had 100Mb downgraded because their Internet was always slow because of the crap quality, so they were paying for a 100Mb sticker, but still getting a 1Mb service.